The Ring Floodlight, Battery is the primary Ring product I’ve used that doesn’t simply work out of the field. You’ll want to purchase a set of 4 D batteries to get it up and working. It’s additionally the primary that isn’t designed to work alone. A separate Ring Bridge is required to hyperlink it with the remainder of your Ring gadgets and lights.
But the largest downside with the Floodlight Battery isn’t what it wants, it’s what it does. At $50, it’s the costliest of Ring’s new battery-powered smart lighting lineup, which incorporates spotlights, movement sensors, and pathlights, but it surely doesn’t ship a lot in the best way of distinctive performance. You’ll get notifications and you may set off a cam to begin recording when movement is detected, however boil it down, and the Floodlight Battery is little greater than, effectively, barely smarter than your common floodlight.
The different Ring gadgets in my house—the Doorbell Pro and Floodlight Cam—really feel and performance like premium sensible house merchandise, however the Floodlight Battery isn’t fairly on the identical degree. Rather, it appears like an Amazon Basics knockoff of the Floodlight Cam, albeit a top quality one for the value. Ring’s hallmark craftsmanship and set-it-and-forget-it simplicity are on full show, however the Floodlight Battery simply doesn’t have the identical magnificence and class as its camera-enabled merchandise. And it requires plenty of batteries.
Easy arrange and easy set up
Like the remainder of Ring’s merchandise, the Floodlight Battery is extremely straightforward to put in and arrange. If you’re setting it up as a dumb gentle, you gained’t have to do something besides pop within the batteries and connect the bracket to a sturdy wall or beam with a drill and the included screws. It solely requires three screws to remain in place, however you’ll wish to be sure it’s secured effectively, because the Floodlight Battery will get fairly heavy when you add 4 D cells to it.
The Floodlight Battery is a part of a brand new class of sensible lights from Ring.
But to get probably the most out of the Floodlight Battery, you’ll wish to pair it with a Ring Bridge, accessible for $50 by itself or $70 as a part of a bundle with the floodlight. Like the Philips Hue Bridge, the Ring Bridge allows grouping of lights and IFTT-type triggers for the remainder of your gadgets. It’s additionally the part that sends movement alerts to your telephone, so you want one. The very last thing sensible house fanatics want is one other standalone hub, but it surely’s small, has an extended vary, and makes use of an influence cable (fairly than an all-one-one plug design just like the Chime), so it’s straightforward to cover. It additionally connects as much as 50 gadgets, which ought to be loads except you propose on shopping for a number of path lights (however bear in mind that you would be able to’t function multiple Ring sensible lighting bridge in your community).
Connecting the Ring Bridge to my community was even simpler than the Ring cameras, with little various faucets required to get the Bridge and Floodlight on talking phrases. I solely encountered one challenge with it going offline for an prolonged time period—which was solved by disconnecting a Ring Chime—and even with a comparatively low sign (round RSSI-75 versus RSSI-40 on my different Ring gadgets), the Floodlight Battery didn’t have any responsiveness points or lag.
Simple settings, advanced menus, and so-so monitoring
The simplicity of setup extends to the performance of the gadget, but it surely’s not practically as pleasant. Like the doorbell and different Ring gadgets, you’ll get notifications when the Floodlight Battery detects movement, however I discovered its detection to be a lot much less dependable.
IDGWith solely three movement settings, you’ll both get too many or too few notifications with the Floodlight Battery.
Part of the issue clearly stems from its lack of a digicam, but it surely’s additionally the rudimentary controls on the app. With the doorbell, for instance, there are a number of steps of sensitivity that may be chosen for a way typically you wish to be bothered by alerts, however on the Floodlight Battery, there are solely three: Low, Medium, and High. While Ring says Medium is sweet for “most uses,” I discovered that it triggered alerts for too typically, particularly on windy days. And I had the other downside when it was set to Low. On at some point with it pinned to the bottom setting I acquired only one alert, whereas Medium triggered dozens.
A step in between every of them would assist immensely. For instance, the sunshine sensor (which regulates when movement triggers the lights so your batteries gained’t drain through the day) has 10 steps for adjusting the edge. Granular movement detecting could be very best for the Floodlight Battery’s finest function: the power to create teams of lights that each one activate when movement is detected. That’s a pleasant deterrent for would-be burglars and doubtless the most effective motive to put money into a Smart Lighting system. You can set an period of time for the lights to remain on after movement is detected, and when you’re having a late-night shindig, you’ll be able to snooze all of them for as much as two hours and set day by day schedules.
The gentle’s settings are straightforward to know, however discovering them is one other story. Each gadget has Motion and Light Settings that offer you some management over the {hardware}, however there are additionally Motion and Light settings for the lighting teams with separate schedules and timers. So you will most likely click on the flawed menu a number of instances earlier than you get your lights good—although fortunately you will not want to go to them a lot after the unique setup.
Lots of batteries however little gentle
Since it doesn’t have a digicam, you clearly gained’t have the ability to see what’s happening in your yard except you look outdoors. To that finish, you’ll be able to hyperlink your Floodlight Battery to your different gadgets utilizing an IFTT-type performance. So when the Floodlight Battery detects movement, the Ring doorbell will begin recording.
While that’s a intelligent little bit of interoperability, it’s not practically as helpful in apply. Unless your gadgets are close to one another, detecting movement gained’t assist. Much extra helpful is the power to activate the lights when one of many Ring cameras detects movement (although you’ll have to dive into every gadget’s settings to seek out it), however recording something of use requires severe planning with the place you place the lights. As such, my doorbell digicam recorded plenty of nothing since I mounted the Floodlight Battery in my yard. It drives house the purpose that the Floodlight Battery is extra of an adjunct than a standalone gadget, as is the case with all of Ring’s sensible lights.
IDGYou can hyperlink Ring sensible lights so long as you’ve gotten a Ring Bridge.
The different downside is that it runs on 4 D batteries. While I used to be pleasantly shocked by the battery indicator within the app, it stays to be seen how correct it is going to be. Ring estimates that they are going to energy the Floodlight Battery for a 12 months, however clearly that is determined by how typically your lights illuminate. During one. significantly busy night time, the battery indicator within the Ring app inexplicably dropped to 50 %, although it returned to full the following morning. In an age the place we’re shifting away from disposable cells in favor of rechargeable ones, the waste and expense required to energy the Floodlight Battery is surprisingly short-sighted. (Or maybe not: AmazonBasics simply so occurs to promote a pack of 12 D Cell Everyday Alkaline Batteries for $12.99.)
Another unlucky aspect impact of the Floodlight Battery reliance on battery energy: it’s simply not very brilliant. It’s solely rated for 600 lumens—a 3rd of the Floodlight Cam’s 1,800 lumens—and even with the brightness turned all the best way up, it feels extra like a highlight than a floodlight. It’ll do effectively sufficient to light up a pitch-black porch, however when you’re shopping for one to intimidate a would-be intruder, you’ll most likely have to hyperlink just a few of them. Or when you don’t want the comfort of battery energy, take into account the Ring Smart Lighting Floodlight, Wired, which produces 2,000 lumens, however prices $20 extra (our assessment is in progress).
Should you purchase a Ring Floodlight, Battery?
Anyone who’s invested within the Ring ecosystem will certainly wish to take into account the Floodlight Battery. It’s cheaper than some non-smart movement lights you should purchase at home-improvement shops, and the $70 Bridge bundle makes it much more engaging, since you’ll be able to add different Ring Smart Lights and Ring gadgets to the general system.
With the low value, nevertheless, comes much less smarts and extra frustration. The gentle settings are extraordinarily fundamental. The use of 4 D batteries isn’t very best both. I’d have fairly seen a $100 price ticket with a chargeable battery, brighter LEDs, and slightly extra performance. Ring made itself a family title on the again of its simplicity and affordability. The Floodlight Battery undoubtedly follows that method, however sadly it takes it slightly too far.